Alcohol is bipolar. It can be fun and high society, or sleazing and seedy. Probably why we all like it so much--without it I'd never have a girlfriend!
But, a big reason people drink is to relieve stress. You've seen it in the movies, the lonely detective pours a scotch after a rough day on the beat.
And, there may be some truth to that. A new study tests the idea that people drink because it eases anxiety, not because we like it.
Writing in the journal Biological Psychiatry, scientists have explored the "dark side" of alcohol addiction (in rats)--the compulsion to drink.
You "acquire a taste" for booze (at least I did), so some people may choose drink over let's say a tasty milkshake, because it gets you high and cuts the anxiety built up from alcohol withdrawal.
But this worry, i.e. addiction, could be switched off. If blocked, hormones that trigger the body's response to stress and eventual boozing, may prevent the anxiety-fueled reasons to go on a bender.
In the rats, researchers found pumping them full of hormone-suppressing chemicals, killed their urge to booze it up, and this might work in people too.
I didn't realize there was a bar full of alcoholic rats running amuck!
SOURCE: diet.blog
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